A School Trip to South Africa!

My trip to South Africa with Operation Wallacea will definitely be one of the highlights of my life! I arrived in Durban and an Opwall staff member was ready to pick us up and take us to our location. Our campsite was in Somkhanda game reserve, which had great accommodation with electricity, food, and facilities. It was practically glamping!

All the staff members were super helpful and knowledgeable when helping us out with tasks and data collection.

Photo by Callum Evans

Out of all our transects and sciency tasks, my favourite were the game transects and safaris! We went out on a safari vehicle with seats and an open canopy, so we could watch and look out for animals while the ranger/animal expert drove.

On these safaris I saw Impala, Nyala, Wildebeest, Rhinos, Giraffe, Hyenas, and more! These were such magical moments, as I had never seen these animals in the wild and so personal.

Photo by Benjamin Sadd

I feel like I really got the chance to marvel at their beauty and learn why they are so important up close, instead of having this internal barrier of like “yeah I know __ is endangered/important, but why should I care?”

My favourite sighting was the spotted hyena, as there are only 500 packs left in the entirety of South Africa! That as a very special moment, and it made me realize how important the conservation work that we were doing there really was. It made me appreciate how hard the rangers and anti-poaching units were working to keep these animals safe and happy, so that we could preserve this habitat for future generations, humans and animals included.

Photo by Tom Avent

This trip was truly an amazing experience, and given the chance, I would absolutely come back and work on this camp again!

Title photo by Benjamin Sadd